


Conclusion

by KennaM



Category: Community, Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cast change, Crack, Crossover, Gen, Inception AU, Scene Rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-11
Updated: 2013-02-11
Packaged: 2017-11-28 23:59:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/680350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KennaM/pseuds/KennaM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crossover Community/Inception AU, where Greendale Community College is really a shared dreamworld, and a team of professionals have been hired by Hawthorne Industries to subtly convince the heir to the Winger Empire to dissolve his company. As a reward for success, team leader Abed Nadir is finally able to return to his family.</p>
<p>This is specifically a rewrite of the last scenes of Inception, with the Inception cast replaced with Community cast. It may seem a bit OOC since I am literally just rewriting the original scene, not changing the characters to be more like their Community counterparts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conclusion

**Author's Note:**

> Originally this idea was an alt-Season 2 ending. While watching season 2 I was surprised by how many Inception jokes they were making, and I joked that at the end of the season we would realize Greendale wasn't even real and it was all a 'dream within a dream within a movie'. But then the AU started to form itself, and all the characters matched up perfectly, and I realized this was something that had to be done.
> 
> Abed is replacing Cobb (because of his obsession with meta and his own battle between real and not-real), Pierce replaces Saito, Jeff replaces Fischer, Troy replaces Arthur, Britta replaces Ariadne, Annie replaces Yusuf, and Shirley replaces Eames.
> 
> It may read better if you watch the original scene [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQPy88-E2zo) first, but maybe not, it's your choice.

Abed opens his eyes slowly. He finds himself staring at the ceiling of the plane, the hum of the engines in his ears, blinking in disbelief. He feels like he hasn't been here in months, and he's not entirely sure that he really is here again.

"Hot towel sir?" a soft voice says to his left; he'd barely registered the flight attendant standing beside his seat. "We'll be landing in Los Angelos in about twenty minutes," she adds, noticing his confusion in his face. "Do you need immigration forms?"

"Thank you," Abed hears himself saying, taking the paper handed to him. He looks hesitantly down at the questions printed on the sheet, running a thumb down the edge, still not sure if this is real.

From his seat, Abed can't see Jeff or the way his fingers are pressed together, or the faraway, thoughtful expression on his face. Jeff wordlessly takes the immigration form and turns his head to stare out the window.

Still unsure about everything that happened, Abed raises his eyes from the paper in his hand, tempting but untrustworthy, to the seat across the aisle where his friend sits. Troy's awake and worried, watching Abed; as soon as their eyes meet, Troy's face floods with relief. He smiles, chuckling to himself, and Abed fills with certainty.

Lying back in her seat, still feeling the effects of having woken up, Britta turns to catch Abed's eye as well, with a silent question. Abed shifts his gaze to Pierce to answer it. Though he looks stunned and just as lost as Abed felt when he'd finally woken up, Pierce is definitely awake. He feels Abed's gaze and turns to look at him before straightening out in his seat, taking a breath, and reaching for the plane phone. For the first time in what feels like forever, Abed is overcome with relief, finally free, the paper in his hand waiting to be filled out.

-

Standing in line, though, Abed begins to fill with dread again. He keeps his forms tucked into his passport and hands them both over when he reaches the customs desk, hoping worry doesn't show on his face and not actually expecting much luck. Any confidence he held earlier is slowly waning. He watches, anxious, as the customs officer scrutinizes the form, flips through the passport, and checks something on his computer. Resigned to his fate, Pierce's efforts wasted, Abed almost doesn't hear the pound of the stamp in his passport.

"Welcome home Mr. Nadir." Abed looks up quickly, trying not to seem too surprised as he takes back his passport.

"Thank you sir," he says, and Britta, sitting with an immigration officer in another line, watches with a small smile as he moves forward.

-

Abed grabs his luggage off the carousel, ducking between other passengers who pay him no attention. Annie extends him a small nod and an encouraging smile as he passes by her, and Troy locks eyes for a moment before looking away, pretending to be concerned with other things. Standing back, away from the crowd, Shirley watches him pass by silently; no one says anything, or gives any real sign of familiarity. The job is done, and they will go their separate ways.

Jeff also stands at the edge of the crowd, looking down at his phone while he waits for his luggage to appear on the carousel. As Abed passes by, a flicker of recognition shows in Jeff's eye and he looks up - but too much of the dream has passed from his memory, and Jeff doesn't notice Abed as anything more than a fellow passenger. With a final glance over his shoulder to make sure Jeff's attention has gone back to his phone, Abed walks on to the last security gate, and to an older man in the crowd who waves out to him. The man's face is a mixture of relief and worry, and disbelief, but he takes Abed's bag and presents a hand.

"Welcome," Abed's father-in-law says as they shake hands. "This way."

As the older man leads him outside, Abed takes a deep breath.

-

Together, Abed and his father-in-law enter the home he lost so many years ago. It's just as he remembered it, if a bit more lived in, with the same wood furniture and the view through the wide back windows just as stunning. His father-in-law sets the luggage down by the dining table and leaves the room while Abed regains his bearings. Everything is perfect, and nothing has been for so long that he almost doesn't know what to do with it.

He quickly reaches into a pocket while he has the room to himself, almost a nervous habit by now; the top falls expertly onto the table, spinning in a wide circle before stabilizing after a second. Abed stares down at it intently until he hears the back door slide open and his father-in-law call out, "Ben? Deanna?"

Looking up, heart in his throat, Abed sees the two small children playing in the lawn. They've grown over the years, but they're the same as he remembers them, and for the first time in too long they look up and he sees their faces for himself. "Look who's here."

Deanna is surprised and excited, and Ben's smile grows so wide Abed can hardly contain himself. He rushes to the doorway as the kids jump up, Deanna yelling "Daddy!" and leading her brother along with her in a run. They meet in a tangle of arms and smiles, Abed picking Deanna up first to swing her around, then setting her back on the floor to clutch at his waist as he holds Ben to his chest. He feels such a swell of emotion, holding his children tight, everything forgotten except the feeling of finally being back where he truly belongs.

Abed's father-in-law politely excuses himself from the room with a smile, grabbing the luggage on his way back to the bedrooms, and doesn't even notice the small top, still spinning, on the nearby table.


End file.
